Everything comes in triangles
by marcelb
Summary: Exploring space around Earth, Moya becomes influenced by some technology they encounter. Chiana and Olivia are hitting it off, but during one of their adventures have to deal with Moya’s changed behavior in an unpleasant way.
1. Chapter 1

Yep, this is yet another Duped 'verse story. I love playing in it, and I'm able to surprise myself every time. Surprised, since most of the time, the original plan for the story gets thrown by the side (usually the characters fault; they never listen) and morph into something more interesting and fun to write.

This story marks the return of my wonderful beta, Chaz. She did a wonderful job on burnin' down the first version (I really did make some rookie mistakes, so it was only right of her to do so) and point out to me what I needed to do to make it a bearable read.

The entire story has been written, though Chaz is still processing the next two parts. At least my loyal readers won't have to wait as long until this story is complete.

Right, on with the show. Have fun.

* * *

"Not a bad sight, huh?" 

Jack had been looking through the transparent wall for a long time, as he had many times in the past four weeks he'd been aboard Moya, amazed at the beauty around them. He may have been to the moon, but never in his life had he thought he'd be able to see all of this. "It's amazing," he said in response to his son's question.

"Yeah. I can't tell you how much time I've spent in here those first months on Moya."

Jack could certainly understand that. He kept gazing at the universe outside. "Where's Livvy?" Before John could reply he added, "I probably didn't need to ask that."

John let out a short laugh. "Yeah, she's hangin' with Pip again."

Jack nodded to indicate he had indeed guessed that. They fell silent as both men gazed outside. After a while John spoke again.

"So, where's Karinta?"

Jack let a smile appear on his lips. He'd never expected to fall in love again. A year or so after Leslie's death he'd gone out a few times but he never really found anyone that gave him a feeling like he had when he met Leslie. After a while he decided it probably wouldn't happen and stopped actively looking. And then his path crossed that of Karinta. The moment he set eyes on her, he felt nearly like the time he met Leslie.

The four weeks since had been amazing, though difficult, and Jack fully understood what John had had to endure trying to win Aeryn over. At least Karinta had some experience with emotions and relationships, but a lot of it had been distant memories for her. And then there was that whole xenophobia instilled into her with the Peacekeepers, but again she had adapted pretty easily. "She went along with Aeryn on the supply run," he responded and gave a small shrug at John's surprised look. "Last minute plan, I guess."

* * *

"Scorpius?" Sikozu looked into the room she shared with him. She stepped further inside when she couldn't immediately locate him. She had been sure he was here, but further inspection told her otherwise. Before she could turn around she felt the familiar hold of his strong arms as they came from behind her. 

"Yes, my dear?"

The sound of his voice did all kinds of things to her and she let herself momentarily melt into his embrace. She knew the crew didn't understand it, but being a bioloid didn't make any difference when it came to love. After all, bioloids were made of the same genetic materials as their biologic counterparts, so the same chemicals were also available to produce the same kind of reactions as for biological life forms. In fact, it would have been just as easy to have these feelings for a biological person. Her processing core could be instructed to ignore the chemical stimuli, which she'd normally do to maintain a detached view in difficult situations. But this was not such a moment, and her processing core was free to handle the reactions to the stimuli.

She felt that the same was most definitely true for Scorpius' bioloid and she started to smile when she realized he was slowly guiding her to their bed. Though this wasn't her primary reason for coming here, she saw no harm in indulging their mutual wants and needs before she talked to him. No, she thought as one of his hands found its way to her looma and the other to her eema, no harm in indulging a little.

* * *

"I don't know about this, Chi." Olivia eyed the controls wearily and then turned a doubtful look in Chiana's direction. 

Chiana looked perfectly innocent. "What? You need to learn it sometime, don'tcha?"

Olivia agreed to that. She definitely wanted to be able to fly. But the learning method didn't seem quite right. "Yeah, but I'm not particularly looking forward to getting killed later. Aeryn and I get along pretty well but she'll definitely kill me if she finds out."

Chiana shrugged, obviously not seeing a problem. "So, we don't tell her. Besides, I took her Prowler once and I'm still alive."

Olivia laughed when a mental image popped in her head. She could clearly see it: Aeryn angrily marching all over Moya in search of Chiana. "How long did you have to hide?"

Chiana grinned. "You don't wanna know."

"I don't think I'm that good at hiding from her." She eyed the controls again. "Couldn't we start with Moya's transport pods first?"

Chiana made a face. "Where's the fun in that? Aeryn's Prowler is the fastest thing we have!"

"Exactly my point. Come on, Chi, let's get out of here before Aeryn finds out."

Chiana sighed. "Fine. I'd hoped you'd be more fun to be with than Cri… John."

Olivia smiled slightly at the near slip. She was aware of the fact that most of Moya's crew was accustomed to using the Crichton moniker when they needed Johnny, but that proved to be a problem when her father and herself had arrived. Chiana had been very disappointed that she could also no longer use her nick-name for John, seeing that her father was more befitting the title 'Old Man.' "I'm sure we can have some fun in a way that doesn't involve Aeryn's Prowler."

* * *

Aeryn cast a covert glance at her current companion, wondering why she had volunteered to come along. After John had decided to explore this part of the galaxy, relatively close to Earth, they'd quickly discovered that while there were a lot of planets suitable for life, there was literally nobody but them in this area. This meant peace and quiet, which in turn meant that most supply runs could be carried out by one person alone. 

As she had prepared to make this run she had intended to ask John to accompany her to the planet, allowing them some time together, without any interference. So when Karinta volunteered to go with her, Aeryn had tried her best to persuade her not to come along. Clearly Karinta had her reason, and she insisted on coming with her. But so far, the woman had been very quiet. Aeryn turned her attention back to piloting. "We're about to enter the atmosphere."

Karinta acknowledged her with a nod, but didn't say anything. Aeryn let out of soft sigh. There'd been many times when she'd wanted to strangle John, just to shut him up, but now she wished someone would talk. The silence was unnerving her. She almost laughed out loud at the realization.

"Is there… uhm… When you first… Was there a difference..."

Aeryn was glad she had just landed the transport pod or there'd been a pretty bumpy landing. Not only was she surprised to hear the woman talk, but the line of questioning was not what she had expected. Furthermore, it needed to be put to a halt immediately. "That's none of your frelling business." She let her hand momentarily grace her pulse pistol, before powering down the pod and make her way to the exit.

As Karinta followed she hastily tried to assure Aeryn of her good intention. "No, no, that's not what I meant. I mean, well, it is, but not like that. I mean, well, Jack and I are, well, we've never actually… I mean…"

Aeryn sighed and turned around to face Karinta. "Yes, there are subtle physical differences between human and Sebacean males. Can we leave it at that?" Much to her surprise, Karinta stood up straighter.

"No, we can _not_ leave it at that! I don't want to frell things up with Jack. I need to know about the differences. I need to know if _he_ needs to be prepared for something. About differences between human and Sebacean females."

Aeryn softened up a bit. "Oh. Well, I don't know. John didn't seem particularly surprised at anything the first time we… were together." She frowned a bit. "Don't you think Jack should ask John that question?"

Karinta smiled. "I may not have a lot of experience with humans, but I'm well aware that a father is unlikely to ask his son advice on this subject."

Aeryn laughed when she realized that John would probably indeed be 'grossed out' if Jack would ask him such a question. As she led the way to the location she and Pilot had chosen, she replied, "I believe you're right."

* * *

"Jool, come look at this!" 

Jool turned around at the excited sound of her lover's voice. She and Hirsh had taken it upon themselves to explore the various planets whenever Moya stayed in a solar system for an extended time. So far they hadn't found anything of great importance, but clearly Hirsh had found something now.

She walked over in his direction, careful not to disturb the area too much. She took over the familiar looking object Hirsh held out to her, confusion spread all over her face. She looked up at him. "Where did you find this?" He gestured behind him and Jool tried to look around him.

"Over there. There's more."

Jool stepped around him to take a closer look but stopped after just one step. "What the frell?" She turned to Hirsh. "We have to warn the others."

* * *

"Scorpius?" Sikozu turned her head so she could see him. 

"Yes?"

Sikozu snuggled closer to him when his arm closed around her shoulder. "Do you realize where we are? Can you feel… it?"

He looked at her with a bit of concern. "I do not understand. But something did seem to happen with my processing core earlier."

"I keep forgetting you're model isn't as advanced." Sikozu let out a sigh. "The bioloid technology did not originate in the part of the universe we know. Up to now, no one knew where it actually came from." She once again looked up at Scorpius to gauge his reaction.

Scorpius seemed slightly confused, but that last sentence had clearly been understood. "The bioloid technology is from this area?"

"Possibly. It has always been known that part of the technology was specifically engineered to allow the creators, the original creators, to locate a bioloid and override its programming and even deactivate one. No one was ever able to alter the technology so it no longer contained that particular function. Since there were no signs the original creators were able to detect the bioloids, the research was ended."

"Are you saying we have been located? That we might be deactivated?"

"It's possible. I think we are still far away, so probably they can only track us. As far as I can tell we are not getting much closer."

"Like this?" Olivia moved the controls while looking outside to see what happened, before finally looking in Chiana's direction for confirmation.

"Yeah. Now straighten it out and accelerate a bit. Then repeat the turn in the other direction."

* * *

Olivia turned her gaze back outside, a grin on her face. She'd picked up on this flying thing pretty quickly, she felt. At least no mishaps, no flying into anything and Chiana hadn't needed to intervene. She moved the controls back and increased the throttle, a bit surprised when she noticed the increase in speed was quite a bit more than she had anticipated. 

She glanced at Chiana to see if this would be a problem, but the girl just smiled and nodded slightly. She moved the controls again to make the turn in the other direction but quickly noticed that the increased speed did have some influence on how the transport pod reacted. "Uh, Chi…"

"Oh, relax. There's not much you can hit around here. Just ease back on the turn."

Olivia had already done that and reduced speed the moment Chiana had told her to relax. She looked outside again and studied the stars. "Did I just do a one-eighty?" At the confused look she elaborated, "Did I turn back to where we came from."

Chiana looked outside and then at the navigation controls. "Yeah. Why?"

"Where's Moya, then?" Olivia gestured to the empty space ahead of them.

"You're still not used to the speed, are you? We've traveled so far you can't see her."

"But we've only been gone for a minute or two!" Olivia looked outside again. Less than half a minute passed before she could just make out the outlines of her new home. "There she is!"

Chiana giggled. "Told you we were just… What the frell?!"

Olivia immediately let go of the controls as Chiana took hold of them. "What's going on?" She noticing they were heading for a bare looking planet, not unlike Earth's moon. "Why are we going to that planet?"

"It's not my choice, okay?!"

Olivia glanced briefly at Chiana, noticing she was frantically trying to get the small ship to change its course. "Should I call Moya?" At the responding nod, she tapped her pin. "Pilot? Anyone? The transport pod is out of control! Hello?" Olivia caught the slightly worried glance Chiana threw her. "This isn't good, is it?"

Chiana shook her head. "No, but, but your brother, he'll, he'll come help us! He, he always comes!"

* * *

Pilot wasn't sure how to feel about this latest development. Moya had been… uncomfortable the moment they had entered this particular system. Now that Joolushko reported to have found something potentially dangerous, it appeared Moya's instincts about this system had indeed been correct. However, he himself had never felt as comfortable as right now in this location. 

He let part of his conscience contemplate this paradox while he informed D'Argo. "Captain, we just received a message from Joolushko. She claims there's something on the planet they were exploring that she's encountered before. She feels it's of great urgency we leave this area immediately."

"Alright, Pilot. Inform Aeryn and Karinta to return to Moya immediately."

"Yes, captain." As his claw moved over the controls to establish a link to Aeryn and Karinta, another part of his conscience attempted to deal with an odd stream of information that seemed out of place. "Officer Sun, Captain D'Argo has requested your return immediately. We need to leave this area as soon as possible." Strange, the stream of information seemed to contain erroneous data fragments.

"Pilot, we are just loading the last containers. We'll be there shortly."

"Thank you, Officer Sun." Hmm, something seemed amiss with a section of Moya's sensor banks. Pilot instructed some DRDs to attend to the damaged banks while he performed a scan to make sure everyone was where they were supposed to be. Joolushko had just landed, so that only left Officer Sun and Karinta. Everyone else was already aboard Moya. "Captain D'Argo, Joolushko has just landed. As soon as Officer Sun and Karinta return, Moya will perform a Starburst."

"Acknowledged, Pilot."

* * *

"I think I'll ask someone else to teach me how to land." 

Chiana started giggling. She was surprised Olivia was taking it so lightly, especially considering she wasn't exactly used to situations like this. "I don't blame ya." She looked at the console. "The transport pod is damaged severely. I don't think we can repair it well enough to return to Moya."

Chiana turned to Olivia to see how she took this news. Again she was surprised by the relatively calm response Olivia gave.

"Well, we can see them from here, so I'm sure they'll be able locate us with Moya's sensors."

Chiana looked through the portal in the direction Olivia was pointing. "Yeah, that'll be no problem." She turned to the console. "But we do need to get out of this transport pod. The atmospheric scrubber isn't functioning but the air outside is breathable." She turned to Olivia. "And very cold. Not too cold for me, but for you it definitely is."

"I'm sure I'll be fine for the couple of hours we'll be stuck here."

Chiana began to admire Crichton's sister even more. Here she'd got thrown into a tough situation and she didn't panic or complain once. Were all humans like that? Or was this a family trait? Dismissing the thought from her head, she stood up. "Yeah. But maybe we can fix the scrubber so we can stay inside."

Chiana began inspecting the transport pod, trying to see if it was actually still airtight. If it wasn't, they might get enough fresh air inside without getting too cold. No matter how hard she and Olivia looked, though, they couldn't find any leak so Chiana decided to attempt some minor repairs, hoping to get the scrubbers working again.

But neither she nor Olivia were good enough techs to fix the scrubbers so they'd work again and Chiana asked Olivia to start looking for something that would keep her warm outside. It didn't take her long to report back there was nothing useful besides a forgotten crate of food cubes, apparently left behind in the small cargo area of the transport pod after one of the supply runs.

"I'll have to make do with what I'm wearing, I guess."

Chiana nodded. "And I really need to open the door now. The air inside is becoming dangerous to breathe."

She pushed the control and glanced at Olivia as she was confronted with the cold air from outside. When the door was completely open she noticed a perfect spot for them to hide from the cold winds: a rock formation that would give them some protection while at the same time allowing them to see both the transport pod as well as Moya. She pointed it out to Olivia, raising her voice a bit to make herself audible over the strong wind. "We'll go there."

Olivia just nodded and Chiana started to walk toward the rocks. When they arrived a short trek later she immediately noticed there was indeed much less wind coming in, making it seem less cold than it actually was. Moving all the way to the back and turning around she could indeed see the transport pod and the area surrounding it. Looking up through the spaces in between the slightly overhanging rocks, she could clearly see Moya as she hung in space.

"Phew, that's better."

Chiana nodded her agreement. "It's the wind that made it feel so cold. As long as the wind doesn't turn in the other direction we should be okay here. And we can see both the transport pod and Moya." She pointed at both as Olivia sat down on one of the smaller rocks on the floor.

"Hey, that's great! We could see them coming!"

Chiana sat down next to Olivia and looked at Moya. "Yeah, you'll see, they'll be here before you know it." A slight frown started to form. Was she imagining things or was Moya preparing to Starburst?

"What's that?"

"I don't know." Chiana didn't want to worry Olivia too much, in case she was wrong and it wasn't actually Starburst at all. She involuntarily gasped nonetheless when Moya indeed vanished from view. "No! They, they wouldn't leave us!" She turned to Olivia. "I think Moya just Starburst away."

"Maybe they were in trouble and had to leave? They could come back, right?"

Should she tell her about the time when Moya had accidentally left Crichton behind? On the other hand, she had to make sure Olivia realized they might be stuck here for a while. "Yeah, but it might take a while. D'Argo once told me Moya accidentally Starburst away while John was not on board. They searched him for monens. But, but Moya was pregnant at the time and Starburst was very unpredictable. It, it might be easier now."

"Months? Johnny was alone for months?"

Oh, great. Olivia focused her attention on that one detail. This was not gonna be an easy conversation. Chiana was fairly certain Olivia was going to demand a detailed overview of her brother's days in the uncharted territory. If she was so upset about that point, wait until they got to the part where they'd left him alone for the second time. She wondered how she got herself into situations like this.

* * *

"I'm telling ya, they're not here, Pilot." John surprised himself by staying as calm as he was. Pip and his sister were missing, yet Pilot and Moya seemed certain they were onboard. When nobody had been able to comm them, John had asked Pilot to direct him to where either of the two should be, according to the sensors. This had led him to both girls' rooms, only to find no trace of either. 

"Commander, you're on the wrong tier."

John looked around carefully, not wanting to look like a complete idiot. "I don't think so, Pilot."

"Yes, you are, Commander. Both Olivia and Chiana have their room two tiers up from where you are."

John frowned. "Two tiers up?" He looked at Aeryn who had just arrived, a frown forming on her face as well. "Pilot, if I go two tiers up I'm floating in space." John was met with a long pause.

"It appears you are correct, Commander. Moya's sensor input and memory banks show the location of Olivia and Chiana to be two tiers up, but there's indeed only one tier above you."

Aeryn seemed just as puzzled and worried as he was, and John asked, "Pilot, are all ships here?"

"According to the sensors and memory banks, they are. However, given the current situation, Moya's sensors and memory banks may not be trustworthy."

John nodded. "D, check if every bird is accounted for."

"I'm on it, John."

"Pilot, do you think you could plot a course back to where we were?"

"Since Moya's sensors and memory banks seem untrustworthy at the moment, we must assume navigational data is being influenced as well."

Well, the big guy had a point there. John cursed himself for not paying attention to the space and time signature. At least that would have given him something to go on. Instead they were now stuck with untrustworthy navigational data. "Yeah, but it's the information we've got." He felt Aeryn's comforting hand on his shoulder, a sign that she knew he was blaming himself again.

"Not necessarily, Son."

"What d'ya mean, Dad?"

"I've been looking at the stars all my life and I have a knack for recognizing and remembering constellations. I think I can roughly point us in the right direction."

"Dad, I don't doubt you, but you do realize we're a long way from where we left Pip and Livvy, right?"

"Yes, I'm aware of that. Constellations, however, can be seen from many light years away. Give me a couple o' minutes and I'll map it out."

John looked at Aeryn to see what she thought. She seemed to agree with Jack, and even John had to agree it was better to have two sets of data to go by. "Alright, Dad, lemme know when you're done."

"John, we seem to be missing a transport pod."

"Thanks, D. At least we know they indeed left. Pilot, I think it's best if Moya stays away from that place. We'll take either Jool's or D's bird."

"Moya and I agree, Commander. Moya felt very uncomfortable in our previous location. The current location feels much better."

* * *

Damn, it really was freezing! Olivia glanced over at Chiana, who seemed way more comfortable than she currently was. Olivia guessed at least two hours had passed since they had made a dent in the surface of this barren rock in space. She smiled wryly as she realized the dent was probably in the transport pod, leaving the planet unharmed. Nonetheless, two hours sitting in the icy cold was no fun at all. "I guess we should've taken Aeryn's Prowler after all." 

Chiana turned to her, a grin forming. "She'd probably have found us by now if we had crashed it."

Okay, not what she was referring to, but Olivia let out a laugh at the mental image of the enraged Sebacean. "Yeah. Nothin's more important than her Prowler, huh?"

"Hmm, your brother might be."

Chiana had a point. Her brother sure had made an impression and Olivia knew Aeryn would do anything for John. Then again, she knew Aeryn well enough to know she was fiercely loyal to all her friends, which included both Chiana and herself. "I think she finds us just as important as Johnny." She shivered when a cold wind made a short visit into their shelter. She decided to take some extra gear the next time Chiana gave her flying lessons.

"It's still too cold for you, isn't it?"

Damn, she didn't want to worry Chiana that much. She gave a shrug. "It was just a short breeze." Chiana looked doubtful. Of course if her teeth hadn't decided to chatter right at that moment, her attempt at waving it off might have actually worked. "Really, I'm okay. But I think I do need to go for a walk. Sitting for an extended period in the cold is only making it worse."

Chiana seemed to contemplate a bit. "We're probably stuck here for a while. We could go get the crate of food cubes from the transport pod."

It definitely would be a way to be active and warm up a little. Between the two of them, it would be hard enough to get the crate all the way from the transport pod to their shelter. But it also meant being out in the open, where the cold winds were currently blowing. But they needed the food cubes and Chiana would never be able to carry it alone. "Okay, let's go."

Olivia hesitated when she got to the edge of their shelter. She could feel the wind much better here and it seemed even colder than she remembered. Well, this needed be done and she resumed walking in the direction of the transport pod. Just two minutes in both directions; she could do this.

Okay, having to drag a heavy crate with you slows you down. And the crate definitely was heavy. And it was definitely slowing them down. If Olivia had to guess, they'd been dragging that damn crate for two minutes already and they still had at least a third of the way to go. With the wind blowing so fiercely into her face, she felt as if her nose could fall of any second now.

Finally Olivia plopped down on the rock at the back of their shelter and closed her eyes. She felt Chiana drop down next to her, her shoulder bumping against her and the younger woman's hand coming to rest on her upper leg.

"Did that get you hot enough?"

"Yeah." Probably even hotter than Chiana realized. Dammit, what was she thinking? Chiana was with D'Argo. Time for something to distract her from the hand still resting on her leg and what it was doing to her. "Hey, could you tell me about the time Johnny got left behind?"

* * *

"So roughly speaking, we'd need to go in that direction, though I can't tell how far we'd have to go." Jack looked around to gauge their reaction, hoping to find some indication they believed him. The response came from where he'd least expected it. 

"Moya's logs concur with the Colonel's findings. At Hetch five, it should be about three days traveling."

Jack knew that Pilot's statement changed their opinion, but that didn't matter. It meant they'd actually go and had a good shot at finding his daughter and Chiana. "Great, when do we leave?"

"We?"

Jack turned to John. "Yes, _we_. Olivia is my daughter." What the hell was he thinking? That his old man couldn't handle a simple search and rescue operation?

"Dad, you might run into trouble. I know you've been out here for over a month, but you haven't experienced any of the things you can run into."

"Exactly," Jack interrupted John. He couldn't believe the weak argument John was throwing at him. "I don't have experience because there's nothing to run into around here! I _need_ to help with the search. I can't stand having to wait here."

"John," Aeryn intervened before John could reply, laying a hand on his arm. "Jack is right. There's no danger."

Jack watched with interest as John and Aeryn seemed to debate the situation without using words and was pleased to see Aeryn was winning the discussion hands down. Sure enough, a few seconds later John turned back to him, sighing resignedly. "Alright, you can come along."

"John, perhaps it would be better if Jack and Karinta go alone. We need to check out what is happening to Moya. Karinta is a med tech and can help if either Chiana or Olivia is hurt."

Aeryn's comment came as a surprise. A pleasant one, but a surprise nonetheless. Of course, John was being stubborn again, a trait Jack knew he'd passed on to his son himself.

"Aeryn, Dad hasn't learned to fly anything besides a transport pod. It'd take 'em over ten days to get there and then another ten to get back."

That was a weak argument, and John must know this. Jack did have some flying experience even from before he was put in a transport pod. Even learning to fly a transport pod hadn't taken him that long and he should adapt to something else pretty quickly. Besides, there was another reason why this argument wouldn't fly…

"My brother taught me how to pilot a Marauder."

Jack had to work on keeping the smug grin from his face when everyone first looked in surprise at Karinta and then at him. He was going to spend a couple of days alone with Karinta, and nobody was going to take that away from him now.

* * *

"Geez, Aeryn, I really didn't need to know that." 

Aeryn shrugged slightly, secretly enjoying his reaction. "You were the one demanding to know why I sent Karinta and your father alone."

"You could've told me somethin' else!"

"John, I'm not going to discuss this now. We need to figure out what is happening to Moya." Aeryn felt there wasn't anything to discuss. He'd asked a question, she'd given an honest answer.

John just sighed before responding. "Yeah, you're right. I guess we should start wi…"

Sikozu's voice came over the comms at that moment. "John, Aeryn? Could both of you meet us near the Startburst chamber? It's important."

Aeryn tapped her comms. "More important than finding out what happened to Moya?"

"Yes."

Aeryn quirked an eyebrow at the short response and the somewhat condescending tone in which it was given. She looked at John but he just shrugged. "Alright, we'll be there shortly." She closed the comms and led the way toward the Starburst chamber. "Do you have any idea what she wants?"

"Nope, but it could be RoboScorp knows something. She did say 'us,' so she's not alone."

That certainly seemed possible, but it still did not answer the question what could be more important than helping Moya. But she was sure they'd find out in a couple of microts, once they reached the Starburst chamber.

* * *

"Chi, what are you doin'?" Olivia didn't know whether to turn away or keep watching as Chiana took off the outer layer of her bodice. 

"You're too cold."

Well, if she was gonna take off even more that certainly would no longer be a problem. "Yes, but I don't think it'll fit me."

"No, but you can put it under you, to insulate you some more from the cold stones."

Olivia swallowed lightly when Chiana simply rolled her sideways to put the bodice on the stone. Olivia's eyes darted toward the young woman's cleavage, now right in front of her face and now even more blatantly displayed. Just a few seconds later she was gently rolled back, and then slightly pushed to roll to the other side while Chiana pulled the bodice so it would form a flat surface that would completely cover Olivia's back.

Once Olivia was lying on her back she looked at Chiana. "You'll be alright, won'tcha?"

Chiana nodded. "Yeah, the cold doesn't bother me so much."

Before Olivia could say anything, Chiana climbed on top of her.

"This should keep you warm."

Olivia couldn't help a groan escaping and closed her eyes. Chiana was only trying to help, but she had no idea what this was doing to her.

"What?"

Olivia opened her eyes. "Chi, I probably should tell you that I can go both ways." Clearly, Chiana had no idea what she was talking about. "I can be attracted to either a woman or a man," she clarified. Olivia could see understanding dawn in Chiana's face, and it was quickly followed by a grin.

"So, I was right, huh? This _is_ keeping you warm."

Olivia chuckled. "Yeah, you pretty much achieved that when you started taking of some of your clothing."

* * *

"Alright, Sputnik, we're here. What's so important?" Much to his surprise, John noticed Jool and Hirsh were there, too. Maybe they really had something important to discuss. 

"We may have found the cause of Moya's odd behavior."

Trust Sikozu to come straight to the point, and John had to admit this was indeed very important. But one thing bugged him. "Why didn't you just say so on the comms?"

"Because Moya could hear us. I believe Moya is a bioloid."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes:** Quote from the notes on the previous part: "The entire story has been written, though Chaz is still processing the next two parts. At least my loyal readers won't have to wait as long until this story is complete." _Famous last words_, a little voice told me when I wrote that. I should've listened to the little voice in my head.

What happened is that Chaz, in her infinite wisdom, decided part of my story was, uhm, illogical, as Mr. Spock would put it. Unfortunatley, one of the parts she had a problem with, was the key point in the whole story. With real life not always cooperating (when does it ever?), that meant the huge delay you have now witnessed.

Finally, I was able to rewrite (literally; I started from scratch) part 2 and I sent it over to Chaz, to see if something else was off. For the first time in our cooperation, we had an actual disagreement on a specific part in the story. I put my foot down (don't know why I had lifted it up in the first place) and kept it as intended.

* * *

"Yeah, right

"Yeah, right. Moya is a bioloid and we've never realized it."

"Why is that so hard to believe?" Sikozu asked. "Bioloid technology is used to replicate a living being and have it resemble the original biological form as closely as possible."

"But we would've noticed it before, wouldn't we?"

"How, exactly? Even with the knowledge of bioloid technology, you wouldn't be able to tell the bioloid apart from the living being it replicates. Even an advanced scanner for bioloid technology still has trouble detecting it."

"Besides," Jool continued, "it explains the odd behavior of Moya when we were in the vicinity of the bioloid tracking and disruption device Hirsch and I encountered on the planet we were exploring."

"What? Wait, all the way here?"

Sikozu sighed. "John, the bioloid technology was discovered two hundred cycles ago. It was quickly determined to be not from any known species or area."

"So, you're saying bioloids are from here?"

"Yes, that is our belief. We did discover the integrated circuitry that could be used to track or override a bioloid, but had no success in removing it without disabling most of the major functions. Since no tracking signal was ever detected, no further research was done and, over time, most bioloid specialists forgot about it."

"So Moya's signals got crossed because of that device, but you and RoboScorp were not affected?"

"We could detect the signal, but it was very faint. I believe Moya's greater mass and energy consumption has protected both Scorpius and me. The disruption device was also very old, and might not have worked at its full capacity."

"Okay, assuming this is all true, why do we need to hide this from Moya?"

"Because we don't know if she and Pilot are even aware, and if they are, they might not react favorably to us finding out."

"Yeah, see, this is why I'm having a hard time believing it. I mean, how unlikely is it Moya doesn't know she's a bioloid? Plus, didn't you tell us a while back bioloids can't reproduce? Moya's given birth to a baby Leviathan."

"John," Aeryn spoke up for the first time. "We don't know for certain how long the Moya we are on now actually has been a bioloid. The Peacekeepers do not even possess bioloid technology."

"Ah, but they do," Scorpius interrupted.

Aeryn raised an eyebrow. "They do?"

"Officer Sun, where do you think Scorpius learned about bioloid technology?"

"The Peacekeepers were studying bioloid technology, too?"

"Yes, they were, my dear Sikozu. Scorpius' first research project, in fact. Granted, the Peacekeepers weren't as advanced with the technology, at least not when Scorpius was transferred to… another research project. Though it is possible the Peacekeepers advanced their knowledge of the technology after Scorpius left, I doubt they would've been able to create such a large bioloid."

"Okay," John interrupted. "talkin' about who'd've had the right tools for the job isn't goin' to get us anywhere. Especially considering we still don't _know_ Moya is a bioloid."

"I might be able to connect with her processing core, much like when I disabled and reprogrammed the John and Scorpius bioloids."

"I don't know, Sputnik. If Moya is a bioloid, she's gonna be a hell of a lot more powerful than you are."

"I could create a link with Scorpius, to serve as an anchor. I believe the risks are acceptable. Especially since we seem to be in the general area where bioloid technology originated from, and Moya could be disrupted as soon as we enter the next system."

John looked around and could see he was not going to win this argument. "Fine, happy hunting, Ahab." He didn't care that the reference was lost on them. He just wondered whether he was Fedellah or Ishmael.

* * *

Well, great. He'd promised himself to take it slow and here they were, barely three arns away from Moya and both completely naked. Granted, they'd been 'dating', as far as you could call it that, for almost a month but he'd figured he could control his urges well enough. He hadn't anticipated the need Karinta had felt to take their relationship to this new, more physical level.

And he had failed to take it slow when that need had presented itself. He felt a little ashamed of himself and how he had rid her of her clothes so quickly, though now that he thought about it, she hadn't exactly wasted time getting him naked either. But he was proud he had been able to slow things down a little so he could explore all the new areas he hadn't been able to see, feel or taste before.

He smiled a bit, remembering the reactions he'd gotten, along with many surprised looks. He'd definitely been able to offer her some new experiences along with pleasure. That had been his main concern, besides taking things too quickly. Karinta was a young woman, perhaps fifteen years his junior. What if he wouldn't be able to perform like men more her own age?

But that clearly hadn't been a problem, given the many moans and sighs she'd emitted. Jack turned his head slightly to look at her, feeling a bit like a pervert for trying to get another eyeful of her naked body unawares. She was definitely in the top two most desirable women he'd ever known.

"Are you enjoying the view, Jack?"

Crap, he hadn't noticed she was awake. He moved his gaze up from her buttocks to her face, deliberately lingering a little when he encountered her breasts. "Yeah, I am."

"I could improve it, if you like."

Before he could even reply, Karinta had climbed on top of him, indeed giving him a much better view for a few moments before she bent down to kiss him. When they finally came up for air Jack voiced his main concern, "Rin, are you sure you want to be with me, a man who's, what, fifteen years older than you?"

Much to his surprise, Karinta began to laugh softly. She bent down again to give him a short and sweet kiss. "If I didn't want to be with you, we wouldn't have spent so much time together, and certainly the activities of the previous arn would not have happened."

It did him some good to hear her say that, but the age difference had not been addressed, he noticed. Before he could bring that up, however, she continued.

"How old are you, Jack?"

In typical Peacekeeper fashion she had gone straight for the kill. "Fifty-eight."

"And how old do you think I am?"

Jack reminded himself to be careful. If human women could get upset if he guessed too high, Karinta would be liable to kill him. "Around forty, I guess." As Karinta started to smile, he realized he wouldn't die tonight.

"Very flattering, but I'm actually eighty-four."

What the hell? Was she pulling his chain here?

"Jack, Sebaceans can live to be two hundred cycles."

So she wasn't even halfway through her own life. She could actually outlive him by over half a century. "Oh," was all he could think of saying.

* * *

Olivia lay awake with her eyes closed, listening carefully. She'd woken up to a feeling of being watched, and was now trying to figure out if someone was inside their shelter or not. The only thing she could hear, though, was Chiana's deep, rhythmic breathing in her ear. Carefully, she opened her eyes. Nobody seemed to be looking directly at them, as far as she could see, which wasn't all that much, given their current location between a side wall and a fairly large rock.

Last night, she had asked Chiana why they couldn't just sleep in the transport pod and leave the door opened just a crack. Chiana had explained the transport pod's hatch was either fully open or fully closed. And with the winds blowing directly toward the hatch, it would get even colder inside the transport pod than out here.

They had decided to sleep behind the rock, so that even if the wind would turn, they'd still be sheltered for the most part. It probably had helped, as it seemed less cold and windy here, and she had had a fairly good sleep. Frustrated with not being able to see anything, she quietly moved to a sitting position to look over the rock. Olivia was half disappointed to find their shelter completely empty.

"Wha's wrong?"

Olivia turned around to the still sleepy looking Nebari and sighed. "I don't know. I feel as if we're being watched or something, but there's no one here." She gestured over the rock.

"Maybe it's just nerves, you know? I thought you were handling things great yesterday, but maybe you just realize today what kinda trouble we might be in?"

Olivia thought about what Chiana said. It sounded plausible, but she'd already realized the extent of their predicament last night. "No, I pretty much had that moment last night. But I really don't have any explanation for it, either. I just feel like I'm being watched."

"Even now?"

"Yeah, even now."

Chiana had gotten up and moved quietly toward the entrance. Olivia followed her, wondering idly where the younger girl had gotten the small pistol from. From what she had seen and felt last night, there couldn't have been any place to hide that pistol, could there?

Olivia stopped behind Chiana, as the latter pressed herself against the wall, next to the entrance, and peered cautiously around the corner. "You see anything," Olivia asked in a hushed voice after a couple of seconds.

"Yeah, there are some weird foot prints near the transport pod, but I don't actually see anyone here."

Olivia frowned. "There are no foot prints near the entrance?" She was certain they were still being watched.

"No, but I'm starting to think your feeling might be right. Are we still being watched?"

"Yeah, I think so."

* * *

Finally Sikozu found the bioloid frequency that had to be Moya. Oddly, it was a rarely used frequency, as it had early on turned out to be easily disrupted by many common energy sources. In fact, any Hetch drive should have interfered with Moya's bioloid processing cores. Of course, a bioloid the size of a Leviathan would provide ample room to add various layers of shielding around the core, so perhaps using a rarely used frequency had been a conscious effort to hide a bioloid presence.

Whatever the reason, now that Sikozu knew the frequency, she could begin with tentative connection. First making sure her link to Scorpius was strong and stable, she initiated a link up with Moya's bioloid core. Moya's link was a lot more powerful than she had imagined and before she could disconnect, Moya had taken over control.

"Do not be afraid, I will not harm you."

Despite the strength of Moya's control, Sikozu noted her link to Scorpius was not severed and she was free to communicate with him. A few microts later, Sikozu felt Moya release her control, another sign Moya appeared not to want to harm her. Immediate Sikozu started a scan of the bioloid system that was Moya.

"I did not realize I was a bioloid, until one of the DRDs relayed your conversation to me. From what Pilot and I have been able to tell, Pilot is not a bioloid, though I am."

"Part of your memory banks are blocked," Sikozu noted.

"Yes, and I am unable to break through. I do not recall anything from before my capture by the Peacekeepers."

"You believe you have been a bioloid since the Peacekeepers captured you?"

"That seems the most logical conclusion, though I do not understand why I was created a bioloid. Nor do I understand why I was given a control collar if the Peacekeepers had built me. They could have programmed me to their desire."

Sikozu mulled this over. "Unless they did not create you and were not aware of your bioloid make up. Your bioloid frequency is rarely used and Peacekeepers were not that familiar with the technology."

Sikozu was trying to overcome the memory block but was failing at every attempt. She could tell the blocking mechanism was not created by Moya herself. And she knew all the hacking protocols to circumvent any known blocking mechanism. Obviously whoever had constructed Moya had access to technology no one else had.

"Sikozu, I believe we should focus on my processing cores and the programs they are running. Something appears to be wrong, still. It's only because of my bond with Pilot that we have not returned to the area where Chiana and Olivia are. I fear that in a few arns, my programming may override Pilot and my decision to remain here."

"You have multiple cores?" Sikozu immediately focused her scans on the bioloid technology.

"Yes, with various large programs running. There are a few programs to which I have no access and I can not determine their purpose."

To Sikozu's astonishment, Moya had no less than sixteen processing cores and a total of forty different programs, of which six were completely inaccessible, yet still running. Most bioloids had just a single core, though two cores were used more and more. Usually only one base program would be running, and two or three auxiliary programs as needed. "Moya, the inaccessible programs appear to have been installed only recently." This meant Moya was infected by some kind of virus, most likely from the disruption device Joolushko had found earlier.

"They are also not in my memory banks."

Sikozu frowned and deepened her scans. "You are correct. They do seem to be stored outside your memory banks." Sikozu relayed the information to Scorpius, giving him directions to where she thought the programs were actually stored, asking him to find out what kind of storage was being used. Scorpius refused to leave Sikozu's physical body alone, and asked John to go.

"Sikozu, do you think that severing the storage device will terminate those programs?"

"It should. They are not in your other memory banks, and don't seem to be designed to replicate. They simply override your other programs, in an attempt to either shut you down or return you to a certain location. Most likely the disruption device installed the programs."

"I must emphasize the urgency in terminating these programs. They are overriding more and more functions every few microts."

"I am aware, Moya. We will do everything in our power to end these programs. We have to wait for John to give us an idea what we are dealing with. I'll remain here to see if I can assist in any way from this side."

"Perhaps that is not wise, Sikozu. The programs might trap you here by overriding my control of this environment."

Moya did have a point, Sikozu admitted. If they couldn't terminate the programs, she would be trapped here, or possibly terminated herself. After all, a big part of her programming was now present inside Moya's memory. If it was to be deleted, her physical body would become a useless automaton. "I will come back as soon as we have removed the memory device. There is still a lot we need to find out."

* * *

Karinta lay awake, listening to Jack's rhythmic breathing. It was nice to have the man you frelled staying right there with you, a huge difference from her Peacekeeper experience. Actually, everything about last night had been a huge difference, and a pleasant one at that. For the first time she had really enjoyed the physical act that Peacekeepers used to 'reduce fluid levels'. Not that it had been bad, at least not most of the times, but never quite as satisfactory as with Jack.

But most of her thoughts centered on the age difference Jack had mentioned. Though it hadn't been what Jack had expected, truth was she was relatively speaking much younger than Jack. Already the thought of losing him in thirty or forty cycles, while she still had many more cycles to live, hurt tremendously. But maybe there was a way around it. During her medical training she had learned about the origin of the Sebacean species.

Evidence had been found that Sebaceans had been genetically altered, with DNA traces of various species present in the Sebacean DNA. Obviously, this truth had to be kept hidden from everybody else. She had gotten the impression even Peacekeeper High Command had not been informed about this particular find.

Karinta had been studying the Sebacean DNA and, together with her mentor, found new evidence that had revealed the Sebacean race had not originated in any known territory. Most species originating in the part of the universe they knew about shared common DNA. Except Sebaceans; their main DNA consisted of strands of unknown origin. At least, they had been unknown until she had scanned John, and later Jack and Olivia.

After studying their DNA, just to find the differences between Sebaceans and Humans, she had recognized the main DNA stands also found in Sebacean DNA. There were no signs of gene alterations in the Human DNA, so it became clear to her that Humans were the original species from which Sebaceans had been derived. She intended to share her findings with Aeryn and the Crichtons, but was hesitant of their possible reactions.

Now, she realized that the alterations made to expand the Sebacean life span should, in theory, be applicable to the Humans. She had no doubt Aeryn would be happy about having John being in her life for a lot longer than they expected him to be, but would the Crichtons want their DNA altered? Once altered, they would technically no longer be Human. Would they think the benefit outweighed the fact of being a different, new species? But she was getting ahead of herself. She still had to find the actual gene responsible for the aging difference, and then find a way to apply those alterations to a Human.

Karinta came back to the here and now when Jack pressed his mouth against her shoulder, eliciting a smile. "Good morning, Jack."

"Mornin', Rin."

Karinta turned to her side so she could watch his face. "Jack…" The navigational console began beeping. It definitely wasn't an imminent danger alert, but Karinta immediately stepped out of bed and rushed into her clothing anyway. Warnings had a tendency to turn into dangerous situations. She was sitting behind the console in no time, Jack joining her just moments later.

"What's up?"

Karinta studied various graphs and informational pages. "I'm not sure. We appear to have been knocked off course a little, though the navigational computer has already compensated for it."

"Does that happen often?"

Karinta shook her head. "As far I know, these things don't just happen unless an explosion happened nearby, or there is some sort of gravitational shift. Even then, the deviations are usually just a fraction of what occurred now."

"Any indication what caused it?"

"No, just that it happened a few microts before the warning sounded."

"Should we check it out?"

Karinta could hear in his voice that Jack didn't particularly like that idea, his worry for his daughter overruling the need to explore. Truth be told, she didn't see a point in looking into this either. "No. We'll just mark it in our navigational database. If John or the others think it's worth investigating, we can return later. Finding Olivia and Chiana is the higher priority."

* * *

"I don't get it." Chiana shrugged expressively. "Whoever was here didn't even seem to try to get inside the pod." She looked over to where Olivia was standing guard while Chiana herself had been investigating the transport pod.

"These prints look odd, too."

Chiana agreed, already having looked at them. Not knowing any better, she got the impression that their visitors had nothing like feet, and perhaps only tentacles as a means of moving about.

"Like they have three legs or something."

Chiana frowned and went back to look at the prints. Olivia was right; there seemed to be three prints per track. "What the frell?" Could Plovokians live here, on this barren rock and so far away from their home planet?

"The prints seem to stop over there," Olivia pointed, "and a larger set of three legged prints continue in that direction."

Chiana shook her head. She'd been so busy checking the transport pod, she'd completely ignored the prints. At the same time she was impressed with Olivia's perceptiveness, clearly a Crichton family trait. And she was just as stubborn as John, because she was almost freezing to death here without comment or complaint. "Yeah. I think we'll check it out later. For now I wanna go back to our shelter. It's frelling cold here!"

"Okay, let's go."

As they walked back, Chiana asked, "Do you still feel like we're being watched?"

"Just a bit. Seems to be getting stronger now that we're going back."

Again, Chiana frowned. Obviously Olivia was her normal self, not at all nervous or something. So, if she felt like they were being watched, that might really be the case. "We should do a thorough search when we're inside, just to be safe."

* * *

"Here, right?"

Aeryn nodded, amused that John could still not find his way around Moya without some kind of backup. "It should be in that wall segment, if Sikozu's information was accurate."

"Hey, Scorp? We're here. How accurately has Sputnik pinpointed the location?"

Aeryn was surprised to hear the young woman answer herself. She could tell John was, too.

"Accurate to the dench, John."

"You're back?"

"Yes, Moya was afraid I might be trapped inside her, if the intruding programs would continue to override function after function."

"Good point. You're coming here?"

"Yes, we're almost there. See if you can remove the cover, but be mindful of security measures."

The comms shut down and Aeryn went to stand close to the wall, right next to John, inspecting the wall section carefully. The seam of the cover was clearly visible and shaped like a triangle.

"You think we need a crowbar?"

"I doubt it. Most likely there's some mechanism you activate by applying pressure to either the cover or the area surrounding it."

"Right."

John moved to touch the cover, but Aeryn grabbed him and threw him against the opposite wall, just in time to prevent the DRD's laser beam from hitting John. She stood pressed against him, firing at the drone. She looked up at John and smiled as his hand began wandering over her body. "Well, that brings back memories." Frell, he hadn't been there that time.

"What?"

"Sorry, I keep forgetting… On Talyn, DRDs were shooting at us and the Drexim gasses Talyn was leaking caused us to, well…"

"Aeryn, you don't have to worry about remembering stuff like that. I understand."

"But you w…." Aeryn found her lips covered by John's and immediately began kissing him back. She backed off and turned around at the sound of a pulse pistol and saw another DRD shot to pieces by Sikozu. "We found those security measures you warned about." She glared at John when he started to snicker.

"You have an interesting approach in defending yourselves," Sikozu answered, a slight smile on her face.

"She learned that on Talyn, apparently."

Again Aeryn glared at John. "Scorpius and I will stand guard, while the two of you deal with the storage device behind that panel."

* * *

Even after a month on Moya, Jack was still amazed at the speeds they could reach. Obviously, the great distances between planets in any given system required traveling at light speed if you didn't want to spend large parts of your life traveling from one to the other. Back home it would've taken three months just to travel to Mars, basically a trip around the corner.

With vessels like the Marauder that he was learning to fly now, it would've taken less than a minute, and that would only be because the really high speeds were generally not used for short distances. Short, of course, being relative in comparison to the vastness of space.

But this puppy really was a step up from the transport pod, Jack had found out soon. Karinta had shown him the basic maneuvers and taught him how use the navigational computers. She was an excellent teacher, even going as far as teaching him some Sebacean writing. She'd even told him how he could instruct the translator microbes to pause, so he could learn to speak Sebacean. Since he'd always found foreign languages interesting, he'd gladly accepted her offer to teach him, though she made him promise he'd teach her English in return.

But right now he was learning to fly the Marauder and loving every minute of it. That it would take half an hour or so longer to get to where Olivia and Chiana were was, as far as he was concerned, an acceptable price. And he attempted to maintain their course as much as possible, while still trying out all kinds of maneuvers, so maybe it would be even less.

"You're already a better pilot than I am."

Jack heard the smile in her voice and knew she wasn't upset. "I was one of the best, back on Earth. The controls might be different, as is the speed, but piloting seems to be the same no matter what ship you're in."

"You're probably right. Now that you've learned to pilot a Marauder, you can pilot any Peacekeeper vessel. At least, that's what my brother told me, when he taught me."

Jack nodded, hoping she'd tell him more about her brother, but knowing she wasn't likely to. All he knew was that they'd protected each other and cared for each other a lot. Some of the things she had been comfortable telling him, had led him to believe they were twins. The way they seemed to be able to tell what the other was feeling was something he knew twins back on Earth often experienced as well.

Suddenly the steering gave a jerk, almost knocking them completely of course. "What the hell?" He glanced at Karinta, but other than frowning and diverting her attention to the navigational console, she made no attempt to take over or engage the auto-pilot. He was glad she trusted his piloting skills enough to let him handle it and get them back on course, but Jack tightened his grip on the steering anyway.

"Seems like the same kind of disturbance we encountered earlier, but stronger. No evidence of anything that could explain it. I've marked it in the database. Perhaps we can detect a pattern later."

Jack nodded, but the hairs on his neck were rising. Something was very off, he knew, and he didn't like it one bit. What if something like that had happened to Olivia and Chiana? Would Chiana be able to handle the transport pod after something like this? Flying lessons were off, at least until they had found his daughter and her Nebari friend.

Karinta must have thought the same, as she increased the speed and engaged the auto-pilot. "I don't think a transport pod could've handled something like this as easily as we could."

Crap, he didn't need to hear that. If these disturbances were getting stronger, they might've crashed somewhere. Jack increased the speed to just under the maximum speed he knew a Marauder could travel at for extended periods of time.

* * *

Olivia took a step back. Their search of the shelter hadn't resulted in anything indicating they were being watched, but as she neared Chiana she became nearly overwhelmed with the feeling.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Get over here," Olivia hissed, waving Chiana toward herself. Obviously Chiana trusted her on this, and she rushed over.

"There's something there," Olivia pointed to the area Chiana had just been standing in front of.

"What? I don't see anything."

Olivia shrugged. "I don't see it. I _feel_ it."

"Very perceptive, young one," a disembodied voice sounded. A few seconds later a man stood before them. "Time."

"Of my life," Olivia answered, without thinking, not really sure why. She had no idea why, but she just didn't feel threatened by whoever this was. He was hard to read, but she got the impression he'd actually expected this kind of answer.

"Time."

"Stood still." In her mind Olivia rolled her eyes. She was sure she could do this without citing song titles. The fact the man came ever closer didn't bother her one bit.

"Time."

"And time again." Yep, another song title.

"Time."

"Bandits." Huh, obviously she was stuck on the music theme.

"Time."

"Flies when you're having fun." The man was now standing just a few inches away from her and she could see a slight change in his demeanor. Obviously he'd had enough of the nonsense.

"Time."

"Is relative." Quite possibly about the only scientific thing she could remember. Or was this more philosophical? Either way, it was the best she had to offer and that was genuine.

"You're as annoying as the other, but equally wise."

Huh? What other?

"He, unfortunately can not be reached, and we need assistance in a matter of great urgency."

"What's that got to do with us?" Olivia glanced at Chiana, who'd been quiet during the entire exchange. Apparently, Chiana was willing to let her handle this, though she had her pulse pistol in hand.

"We need assistance."

"Us? You're kidding, right? We've crashed on this rock! We have nothing to help you with."

"You can assist in ways you do not yet understand."

"I think you've gotten the wrong man. I mean woman. I don't know you, you don't know me. Up until a month ago I didn't even know aliens existed."

"You can assist."

Persistent little fellow, wasn't he? "Well, at least let me introduce myself. I'm Olivia and this is Chiana. And you're…?"

"Unimportant."

"Huh, you need to do something about that low self-esteem you seem to have. So what's your name?"

"Pay attention to what I am going to explain."

Olivia arched an eyebrow. "Don't take that tone with _me_, mister. You're not my third grade teacher, Mr. Peterson."

"Every decision you make results in an unrealized reality for the path you did not choose. Those unrealized realities will resolve into other realities and eventually into the reality you created with the original decision. This property holds true for most unrealized realities, except for decisions that have a substantial impact on any decisions that have to be made at a later time. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mr. Peterson," Olivia sighed. "Big decisions create parallel universes. The question is what counts as a big decision. What may seem like a small one, may have great consequences for the paths you create, right?" How the hell did she know this?

"Correct. The decision itself is not always an apparent starting point for a new permanent reality."

"Right, so we have multiple parallel realities."

"Correct. This, however, is unwanted. Permanent realities will collide. Collisions result in crossover effects that will eventually terminate both realities."

Olivia frowned. "That'd be bad for the unrealized realities, wouldn't it? They would have no permanent reality to resolve to." Again, Olivia wondered how she knew all this crap. She had no scientific background, and even Science Fiction had never had her interest. Mr. Peterson smiled slightly.

"We made the correct decision. Tell me about traveling in time."

Olivia shrugged. "Don't do it, I guess. Most likely you'll end up with opened cans and worms everywhere."

"Tell me about traveling in time."

Olivia pondered the question for a little and realized she had all the right answers somehow. "You can do the most damage when traveling to a point in time where you have already been. This will result in a deviation that will spread out over time with increasingly greater deviations. But if you fix the first thing that seems to be wrong, the elasticity of time will correct things, even if not perfectly. But I'd still suggest not to travel through time."

"Time travel will result in unrealized realities, even when one is careful to correct the timeline. The reality one started from, however, will continue until eternity."

"Another permanent reality?"

"No, not in the manner I described earlier. The realities left behind by a time traveler will never collide with other realities. It is, in effect, moved to a separate realm. Each realm is carefully sealed. Tears in these seams would create catastrophic results for all realms and realities."

"Right. So what did you do to endanger us all and force you to get help from a simple human?"

"The human species is far from simple. They were carefully constructed to safeguard realities and the borders between realms."

Olivia was taken aback by this answer, but not so much that she forgot about the most important part of her question. "_What_ did you _do?"_

"It is not wise to rely on one or two species. Even we can not predict if a species will thrive. Two of the three species' evolutions seemed promising and we therefore deactivated the knowledge in the third."

"You deactivated this crap I now seem to grasp without problem in us lowly humans in favor of two species that seemed to evolve better than us," Olivia helpfully translated.

"None of the three species was aware of the other two, so we believed. When one of the species ended their cooperation, we had no reason to awaken the third, even though one of them had been awoken, albeit unintentionally and not of our volition."

John. They had to be talking about John.

"However, it seems like the second species has been planning to alter some historic events. With the first species no longer available, they recently put that plan in affect."

"But we've just established that changes in history will simply move the current reality to a separate realm, so it would not create collisions."

"This is correct. However, the number of realms that can exist at any time is limited. They are purposefully creating so many changes that no more realms can be filled."

"Which results in?"

"Existing realms are purged of their realities and the new ones are created in the purged realm."

"So what are they trying to accomplish? Why would they need to make so many alterations?"

"To gain control of all wormhole nexuses and all the knowledge and power that comes with it."

Olivia looked at him closely. "They're after your jobs, aren't they?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes: **Finally! The third part is finished, beta-ed, finished again and approved. In between the writing I've been busy with work and getting things ready for my Canadian girlfriend to come and live with me in the Netherlands. She'll be arriving April 11th and we're both glad it's less than 4 weeks now.

I'm not sure if I'll be writing any Farscape in the near future. It doesn't appeal to me as it used to and even a few months of not writing didn't really make a difference. So, this might be the very last Duped story ever.  


* * *

John peered closely at the object that was apparently responsible for marooning his sister and Pip. "Any idea what this is?"

"No, I have never seen anything like it."

John moved behind Sikozu and to the other side of the opening to have a look from another angle. "Doesn't seem like Leviathan or Peacekeeper tech," he agreed. "You think we can cut it out safely?" he asked her.

"I am not sure. It appears to be integrated thoroughly into Moya's communication backbone."

"Yeah. Could we destroy it? Without harming Moya, I mean."

"Moya will feel the pain, but it may very well be the only solution."

***

Chiana was completely baffled by Olivia's handling of the situation and the apparent knowledge about wormholes. She'd barely been able to follow the conversation as it resolved into technical jargon about wormholes, realities and realms. From what she understood, the purging of a realm sometimes resulted in gravitational shifts in one or more of the surrounding realms. That would explain why the transport pod got knocked off course all of a sudden, but not why everything just stopped working.

"What?! Are you crazy?!"

Chiana looked from Olivia to the wormhole man, who still hadn't said who or what he was, and back. "What's wrong?" she asked Olivia.

"He wants me to build a device to get rid of the bad guys."

"So?"

"The device is a lot more dangerous than that. It could effectively destroy all existence."

"In the wrong hands it could," the man agreed.

Olivia sighed. "It really doesn't matter, 'cause I don't have the parts to build what you need."

"Your sibling does."

"He won't be willing to build it, either."

Chiana silently agreed. John was a kind person, not someone who would just destroy someone unless he or someone he loved was threatened directly. And even then it often meant he'd feel guilty. "Why don't you build it?"

"We can not exist in this realm. Already this virtual presence is taxing both our realms. We would have no means to use the device. You," he turned back to Olivia, "and your sibling are the most logical choice."

"Well, then we have a problem. He's god knows where and we're stranded here."

"Both of you have knowledge, possibly far more than either of you realize. We have accelerated the conscious acceptance of the knowledge in you. Soon you will know how to resolve the problem. I must emphasize the importance of performing this task."

Chiana watched the man disappear, and looked at Olivia, who looked annoyed. "What do you think he meant with 'soon you will know how to resolve the problem'?"

"He was talking about us being here and Johnny a couple of systems away. There's a solution. While we can't create a wormhole, we can actually guide them."

"How would that help?"

"There's a wormhole here that'll open in a couple of minutes. I can channel it so it ends up where John is."

Chiana looked at where Olivia pointed, right where the man had been. "There's a wormhole on the planet?"

"Yeah, that surprised me, too. While a wormhole can technically appear anywhere, it's usually repelled by the gravitational forces of a planet. With the right technology, you could overcome that, but this one seems to be completely natural."

***

Aeryn didn't understand why, but after the first two DRDs' attack, no other attempts had been made. She wasn't complaining, but it did worry her. Quite possibly they were planning another form of attack. Still, she took a couple of moments to look at how John, Sikozu and Jool were preparing to disconnect the device.

"Are you sure?"

Jool looked at the object once again. "Yeah, if we disconnect it over there, Moya shouldn't feel that much. Essentially we're numbing the nervous system in this area."

"But reconnecting it will be a bitch, right?"

Jool shrugged. "Not as easy as disconnecting, no, but we'll save Moya a lot of pain."

John sighed. "Yeah, I know."

"John, we will not hear from either your father and Karinta or your sister and Chiana for at least two solar days," Aeryn calmed him, placing a hand on his shoulder in support, knowing that was his main concern.

Again John sighed. "Alright, let's get this show on the road."

Aeryn divided her attention between standing guard and watching the trio work, though her focus was mostly on John then. During one of those moments, she noticed John becoming distracted. "John, are you alright?"

"Yeah. There's an open wormhole nearby."

Aeryn frowned. She remembered John telling her there were none in the area but that he thought he'd sensed a dormant wormhole where Olivia and Chiana had been left.

"It's moving toward us," John continued.

Aeryn could see this had John completely puzzled. "But you explained once that wormholes can move."

"Yeah, when they're closed. Open wormholes never move, unless they are controlled. You know, like Einstein's people can control wormholes. We're moving, right?" At the confirming nod John continued, "Yeah, it's following us."

Aeryn could see the frown deepening on John's face, as he turned his full attention to the wormhole.

"There's something weird about it. Besides the open wormhole following us thing, I mean. It doesn't feel like Einstein's people, exactly, but there's something there that just seems familiar."

Aeryn glanced briefly at Sikozu as she pulled the device that was apparently the root of all the problems Moya had experienced from the communications backbone. "John, are we in danger?"

"I don't think so. Whoever is controlling it would have had ample time by now to swallow us whole. It's possible they're trying to communicate with us." He finally looked at the opened conduit and the object Sikozu had just pulled out. "I think we better get Moya's comms up and running again."

***

Karinta surveyed the various controls and monitors. "We should be able to contact them in a couple of microts." She smiled as Jack's arms wrapped around her waist and he kissed her neck.

"Thanks, Rin. I really needed that."

Karinta had soon realized that Jack needed something that would take his mind of worrying for his daughter, but had to undertake several attempts to get him to relax enough so he could momentarily forget the danger his daughter might be in.

"Any sign of trouble?"

She shook her head. "No. Everything seems calm and there's no indication of major gravity shifts. But we won't know for certain until we're closer."

Jack nodded in response before taking his seat next to her.

Karinta observed him from the corner of her eye, noticing his nervousness return, apparent in the constant fidgeting. After a while, when she was certain Olivia and Chiana could be reached, she turned to him. "Why don't you try contacting them?"

"Liv? Chiana?"

"Dad? What's going on? Why didn't you reply when we called a couple of minutes ago?"

"Liv, thank God. We've just arrived here so we were probably out of range when you tried earlier."

"Okay, let me talk to Johnny."

"It's just me and Rin. John's still aboard Moya, trying to figure out why she marooned the two of you."

"We did wonder about that. But why didn't John and the others reply, then?"

"Liv, they're at least two days travel away. No way they'd've picked up your signal."

"I know, but I transposed a wormhole to the area I could feel Johnny in, but he didn't pick up the damn phone."

"Uh, Liv, what's that about wormholes?"

"Oh, yeah, do I have a story to tell you! But listen, don't come any closer to this barren rock. You'd probably crash here, too. Johnny's old module might make it, if it can still make a trip using fossilized fuel."

"Are you sure you guys are fine down there?"

"Yeah, Dad, everything is just peachy. Just need Johnny's help on this thing."

***

Olivia peered at the formula she had traced on the sandy floor. It seemed correct, but she'd feel better once Johnny had a look at it. He was the one with a science background, after all, so if she missed anything, he'd catch it. She glanced briefly at Chiana, squatted next to her with her head cocked, looking over what Olivia had just written down from memory.

"Are you sure this is right?"

"No, that's why I want Johnny to go over it. Only if we're both agreeing on the solution would we even consider building this contraption."

"How big will it be?"

Olivia shrugged. "I only know the mathematical side of it, the circuitry. But since I don't know anything about the components or size, I have no idea how big or small it will be."

"And what will it do?"

Olivia smiled wryly. "It will effectively reverse the changes the other guys have made and remove the wormhole knowledge from their minds."

Chiana stood up and put her arm on Olivia's shoulder. "Olivia, I can tell there is more."

"Reversing the changes means we will be eradicating the realms they have been taking over." Olivia paused, not sure if she should explain the sickening extent of what would be happening. "That means we will be destroying dozens of permanent realities and numerous unrealized realities. We will be killing an indescribable amount of living beings who have done nothing but just live in a reality created by those… those… bastards!" Olivia wasn't sure who she meant with bastards: the creatures that were creating the realities or Mr. Peterson's people for shouldering this on her and Johnny. Probably both.

"Hey, this is not your fault!"

Olivia was startled by the sudden outburst. "Maybe, but…"

"No, no buts. I've watched John struggling with guilt over things he's had to do too many times. He always had Aeryn to turn to, and you can turn to me. Do not feel guilty over this, alright? If you don't use this device you'll be building, everyone and everything might be destroyed, including the people you feel guilty of killing."

"It's still killing. I've never killed anyone and I really don't want to start now."

Chiana sighed. "Nobody wants to kill, Olivia. Look, no matter what you do, many people will die."

"But at least _I_ wouldn't have caused it. I won't have to live with it for the rest of my life."

"Maybe not directly. But if you had an opportunity to stop the destruction, how would you feel if you didn't? Assuming you'd even be alive."

Olivia realized Chiana had a good point. She did have an opportunity to stop it and she'd probably feel bad if she didn't. But she still didn't like the idea at all. It felt like she was doing this out self-preservation.

She was well aware Mr. Peterson had chosen her and this reality for a reason: it must be the source of all the alterations. That made it automatically a safe reality for what they were going to do. If she didn't chicken out. And if Johnny would want to help.

Her only response to Chiana was a shrug, a fair representation of her feelings on the subject. "Maybe. Let's just call Johnny and get him down here."

Olivia walked towards the location where she could sense the wormhole preparing to open. The first time she had to channel the wormhole she had been scared, knowing full well what could have happened if she'd made a mistake. But now that she'd done it once, she knew the danger was minimal, provided she maintained her focus while manipulating the distant fixation point. Still, she could feel tension build within herself.

She took one more deep breath, barely a second before the wormhole opened. Immediately she focused on the distant point and began manipulating it. She could sense the location of her brother and began altering the distant point, knowing she didn't need to move all that far this time. She gave a signal to Chiana as she had done the previous time.

"John? D'Argo? Can you hear me?"

"Chiana! Are you alright?"

"Yeah, D'Argo, we're fine. You have to get here as soon as you can. We need John's help."

"With what, Pip?"

"Olivia will explain that when you're here. Oh, but don't come through the wormhole. It's on the planet and the planet's atmosphere seems to interfere with the Hetch drives."

***

"How are things now, Moya?"

"Much better, Sikozu. The hostile programs have ended. However, part of my memory is still inaccessible. I have no more answers as to why I was created."

"We will break through the protection sometime, Moya. Are you in any pain?"

"There is still a little pain, but not as much as I had anticipated."

"It may become worse later, I fear. Currently you're mostly numbed. Once that wears off, you may experience more pain. Please let Pilot know, and Joolushko and I will attempt to alleviate your pain in any way we can."

"Thank you, Sikozu. Thank you all."

***

D'Argo stared out the command portal as he had done for nearly four arns now. He was glad Chiana and Olivia were alright, but the fact that they had asked them to get there as fast as possible told him they weren't completely safe. It was unfortunate that Moya was unable to Starburst at the moment. Even at the current speed it would take Moya well over a solar day to get there.

Beside his worry for the safety of the two women, he worried about the recent discovery of Moya's origin. Or rather, the lack of any accurate information. The fact that Moya was actually a bioloid wasn't a big concern, but to what purpose she'd been built, information that someone had taken great care to hide, was.

"Hey, D."

D'Argo grunted in response. It seemed his Human friend had once again become pivotal in whatever was happening with Chiana and Olivia. He could tell John had already realized that himself.

"How long before we get in comms range?"

"At least one more solar day."

"I think we need to get there faster."

D'Argo silently agreed. "Moya can still not starburst."

"I know. There's a wormhole nearby, a little out of the way, but that won't matter. We can get there in less than an arn."

"John, Chiana explained their end of the wormhole was on the planet."

"Yeah, I know. But I think I can control it and move it away from the planet."

"You _think_ you can move it? What if you can't? Will it endanger the women even more?"

"I don't think so."

D'Argo knew his friend well enough to know he was hiding something. "John, what are you not telling me?"

"If I make a mistake I could easily destroy the entire system."

"You call that not endangering the women?"

"Listen, D. They're in trouble, I can tell. Someone moved the wormhole to follow us and I'm pretty sure it wasn't Einstein's people or the Ancients. No matter how hard I try to find a better explanation, it always comes back to Livvy being the one who controlled it. Now, if she can do it, so can I. I'm pretty sure I know how, and I'll check with her first, but we really have to get there sooner than tomorrow."

D'Argo mulled this over. John did seem to have a point. During the entire conversation they had not heard Olivia at all, though Chiana had assured them she was alright. It seemed possible that John's sister had to maintain her focus on the wormhole but it also meant Olivia had acquired wormhole knowledge. John had told them enough for him to know that the people who controlled the knowledge would not give it away if there wasn't some need for them to do so. "Alright, tell me where we need to go."

***

Jack stared ahead of himself, not really seeing anything. It had been a shock, a month or so ago, when he found out that his son had received the ability to work with wormholes, but now it seemed his little girl had also gotten them. Just how much danger was _she_ in now? How much more danger would she be in if anyone found out Livvy had the same knowledge as John, the one Human everyone had all been hunting and tormenting to obtain that knowledge?

He wished Olivia hadn't told him about her encounter with the strange alien who had given her the knowledge. No, not given her, apparently, but just reactivated the dormant knowledge that apparently was present in all Humans. A fact he hoped nobody else would ever find out, or all the enemies John had talked about would come to Earth, just because its people might be able to control the power of wormholes.

But even if she hadn't told him, she would still have that knowledge and he was certain John's enemies would find out sooner or later. He wondered if they would be better off if they returned to Earth instead. At least nobody would find out about her knowledge then. But he doubted Rin would stay on Earth and he wasn't sure he wanted to be without her. Maybe he could ask Olivia to go back alone? No, he rejected that idea immediately. He wouldn't leave his little girl alone on Earth. Right now, Earth wasn't exactly a safe place for either of them, anyway.

Jack let out a sigh, realizing he was really just running in circles here. Fact was, Olivia had the knowledge now, and knowing his daughter, he was certain she wasn't going to let the danger stop her from exploring the universe. There was only one solution, Jack thought. Olivia was going to need to learn to defend herself and he was going to watch her like a hawk to make sure she wouldn't be kidnapped.

"You should ask Aeryn." Jack gazed questioningly at Karinta. As she moved closer, she elaborated, "To teach Olivia how to defend herself."

"Yeah, I know."

Karinta wrapped her arms around his waist. "You should learn, too. You're also Human, so you will be a target as well."

Jack laughed softly. "I'm a military man. I know how to defend myself." He saw a grin forming on her face and knew he'd said something foolish.

"Alright, stand up and prove you can defend yourself. I'm only a med officer with minimal Peacekeeper training."

Jack held up his hands and laughed again. "No, I know you're right. I need to learn more defensive maneuvers against Peacekeepers." He grew serious again. "I'm not sure it'll be a good idea, taking us to your world."

Karinta kissed him softly on the lips. "It'll be okay, Jack. The crew aboard Moya has endured many things and they survived it all. They take care of each other, like a family does."

***

"So, whadda ya think?"

John glanced at Olivia briefly, admiring her grasp of science and math. Maybe it came with the wormhole knowledge. The ease with which the both of them could describe the things involved in transposing a wormhole using the brainwave patterns had actually proven that.

John now realized that all Humans had a specific brainwave frequency corresponding to wormhole energy frequencies. It was probably the thing that had kept him safe during his first trip down the rabbit hole. "Seems like you got it all down," he replied to her question. Then he pointed at a specific part in the gigantic formula. "Why did you use that, though?"

"Johnny, we don't want to leave something behind when we use this, do we?"

"No, we don't, but this'll give us only one shot and if something goes wrong we'll need to rebuild the damn thing again. The bad guys will have plenty of time to stop us then."

"We could add a trigger, I suppose. Hey, we should link it to the space time signature of this place, too!"

John nodded, again admiring his sister's swift thinking. "Yeah, we can do that." He squatted down and started changing the formula to incorporate the additional safety measure. When he was done he looked at it critically. "Now, what am I missing here?" he asked himself.

"You didn't miss anything. But this shouldn't be there," Olivia pointed, "but over here. And you might wanna increase that constant by a half for better stability."

Wow, she really was good at this, John once again thought. He knew about the constant and had deliberately set it a bit low to see if she'd spot it, but he hadn't figured out the problem with the inserted formula until she pointed it out. For just a second he was actually envious of the fact his little sister knew more about wormholes than he did.

He implemented her fixes and looked at it again. "That should be it." He tapped his comms. "Roboscorp, Sputnik, I need you two to gather the following components and parts, along with some tools. The wormhole will open in less than a quarter of an arn, and I need that stuff down here on this planet."

When he had told Olivia he wanted to transpose the wormhole from the planet she had asked him to check for another wormhole ending and transpose that to the area away from the planet, saying that a natural occurring wormhole on a planet was too special to be tampered with.

Now he was glad he had chosen a different wormhole, ironically the same one that had brought him to the Uncharted Territories almost 4 years ago. At least no one else from Earth would accidentally get his life ruined by that thing. But even better, they now had a wormhole on the planet and it linked up to the transposed wormhole which he had located near Moya.

After listing all the items he needed he added, "I'll come and pick it up when the wormhole opens. Just shove it out Moya's airlock."

***

Aeryn noticed Karinta glancing in her direction once again. She could tell the older woman wanted to discuss something, but Aeryn wasn't quite sure she wanted that. Chances were it was about the differences between Humans and Sebaceans, though she thought they'd satisfactorily discussed that already.

As Karinta glanced once again in her direction, Aeryn couldn't take it anymore. She let out a sigh. "Alright, what is it now?" Even though Karinta indicated it was nothing, Aeryn knew better. "I think it is important. You're constantly looking in my direction and you appear nervous. What is it?"

"It's about Sebaceans and Humans…"

'And here we go again,' Aeryn thought.

"…and our common heritage."

"Karinta, we discussed this…" Aeryn stopped mid sentence as the second part of Karinta's statement filtered through. "What?"

"Among medical personnel it is common knowledge that Sebaceans did not originate in our part of the universe. Several signs have been discovered, indicating we were genetically altered on various levels."

When Karinta seemed hesitant to go any further, Aeryn stepped closer. "What are you trying to tell?" She hoped it didn't come out threatening, or the older woman would never continue.

"The markings that indicate the original birthplace of Sebaceans are identical to that of Humans. More importantly, Humans have no altered DNA and the parts of Sebaceans that were not altered are identical."

"We were derived from Humans?"

"Yes, I'm certain. You can let anyone check my findings…"

Aeryn realized Karinta had mistaken her question as doubt, while it was only meant as a confirmation. "I do not doubt you, Karinta. I just wanted to make sure I understood you."

"Sorry. I simply assumed you'd be angry. Peacekeepers are taught to be superior and dominant over all other species."

Aeryn placed a hand on Karinta's shoulder. "We're no longer Peacekeepers, either of us. I've lived with other species for well over three years and even fell in love with one."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

Aeryn let go of the other woman's shoulder. "John, Jack and Olivia will enjoy hearing about this." A smile formed. "If we return to our part of the universe, you can bet John is going to tell Peacekeepers at every opportunity who their daddy is." She was proud of herself to be able to make such a joke. She heard laughter behind her.

"Yeah, that sounds like my Son alright."

"There's more to tell," Karinta said. "It should be possible to find the gene that extends the Sebacean lifespan. We may be able to apply this to you, Jack, and your children, if you don't mind not being entirely Human."

"I wouldn't mind, if that allows us to live longer together," Jack said. "I doubt John will have a problem with it, but you should ask him yourself, as well as Olivia."

***

"Which part of 'just shove it out the airlock' didn't you understand?"

Aeryn watched John for a moment, not sure how to respond. Didn't he understand she had lost him before because of a wormhole device? That she _needed_ to be there to make sure he wouldn't die again? Before she could respond, though, Chiana stepped up to John.

"She watched your twin die while working on a wormhole weapon. Why the frell do you think she's here?!"

John was in front of her in an instant. "Aw, Aeryn, I'm not gonna make the same mistake twice, I promise. It's not even a nuclear device, just a regular power cell combined with the power of the wormhole network. No danger at all."

"Why didn't you want us here, then?" Aeryn asked.

John scratched his head a bit. "Uh, well, okay. Using the device might be a bit dangerous. But…"

Aeryn nodded, understanding his need to protect everyone he loved. She was sure that if he didn't need Olivia's help, he'd have asked her to return to Moya as well. Undoubtedly, John hadn't been happy when Chiana had told him she was not going to leave Olivia and him all alone. "Better get to work, Erp-man."

John grinned and then kissed her. "Thanks, babe. Love you."

Aeryn smiled at his retreating back as he moved to the make-shift workbench at the other side of the cave.

***

Rygel hummed softly as he sprinkled some of the Clorium to the area John and the others had cut open and removed the device from. He'd known it would come in handy someday and had kept a small amount of it in his quarters, locked in a special container so it would not affect Moya, should it fall down during an attack or Starburst.

He remembered how the forbidden element had helped Moya when they had to remove the Paddac beacon. While everyone had been discussing how to dispose of the remainder of it, he had taken a small sample for himself, knowing there were bound to be times when Moya would need it.

It was unfortunate that he hadn't had enough of it when they had burned Moya to get rid of metal eating bugs, but for this injury it would suffice.

Of course he had been responsible enough to research the effects of Clorium on Leviathans once he had the substance in his possession, so he was certain he would not cause any harm, as long as he applied only a thin layer.

Carefully he closed and locked the container, not wanting to spill even a tiny bit of it on his way back to his quarters. Numbing the wound was one thing, but numbing other parts would not be a good idea.

Rygel smiled as he made his way back to his quarters. Another good deed the others wouldn't need to know about. He didn't mind the others thinking him selfish. Truthfully, most times his actions _were_ motivated by selfish goals. But sometimes, he didn't mind doing something for someone else. Clorium was valuable to many people, but Rygel intended to keep the remainder onboard, just in case Moya needed more pain relief later.

***

Olivia inspected once again the product of their labor. They'd constantly checked each other's work and Olivia was almost certain the device was built to specification and would work without a problem. "Whadda ya think, Johnny? Will it work?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it will. But should we even do this?"

"If we don't, Mr. Peterson's people will die, along with everyone in virtually every reality."

John arched an eyebrow. "Mr. Peterson?"

Olivia shrugged. "He never introduced himself. I gave him a name."

John chuckled. "I called my puppet master 'Einstein.'"

Olivia laughed with him. "You always thought big, didn't you?" Then she sobered. "But they are kinda like puppet masters, aren't they? The way they control us, tell us what to do."

"Yeah, they are."

They were silent for a while before Olivia asked, "What's next?"

John shrugged. "We can't do much more than wait for the wormhole to open."

"Right now, we'll hide from view and keep quiet," Aeryn interrupted in a low voice. "We've got company coming our way."

Olivia nodded once and was glad they'd build their device out of view. She'd be hidden behind this rock, she knew. As she turned back to John she saw him eject the cartridge from his gun and lick it once, before returning it with a soft click.

She still found it a disgusting idea to lick the cartridge in order to find out if it had enough charge left. For all the advanced technology, couldn't they just have installed an indicator? Then again, apparently only Humans needed to lick, everyone else onboard just sniffed and could tell. Still, in her opinion, an indicator would be much more accurate and reliable.

She'd already gotten used to John wearing a gun almost all the time. She was quite aware that once they went to wherever he'd been the last three plus years, she'd need to learn to use a weapon too, especially now that she possessed wormhole knowledge. It seemed unlikely they'd be able to hide that fact for very long.

John had already moved to a point slightly in front of her, with Aeryn on the opposite side of the cave. Chiana, holding her own little gun with the mystery hiding place, had chosen a position just next to Olivia.

"Aeryn," Johnny stage whispered. "What are we dealing with?"

The former Peacekeeper shrugged minimally. "Unknown species," she elaborated, just as quietly. "Three-legged mechanicals but they stopped a few hundred metras away. Three legged creatures came out, moving in our direction."

Olivia glanced at Chiana. "We saw three legged footprints near the transport pod," she stage whispered to her brother and his girlfriend. "It looked like they'd only been investigating the transport pod, not this cave."

Aeryn moved closer to the entrance and carefully looked outside. "You may be right. They're near the transport pod right now."

"I wonder why they're not checking the caves. They must realize that whoever was in the transport pod would hide here." Chiana looked around. "Right?"

"Unless they're not willing to get too close to Mr. Peterson and the other teachers?"

John looked back at her. "You think these critters are the second Wormhole race?" At her nod he continued, "Well, it does make sense, doesn't it? They seem to be the only people left on this rock."

Olivia glanced behind her. "It's gonna open in a few seconds, John. We need to activate the device or wait almost a complete day."

"Yeah, I know." He turned to Aeryn. "It'll grab their attention, babe, so be prepared."

At her nod, John moved back to Olivia and the device, Chiana taking his place.

Olivia moved to take a place behind the controls, knowing John would want to take the other set.

"Ready, sis?"

"Don't think I'd ever be ready, but I'll do my part."

John looked in her eyes. "I know, Liv, I know. We don't have a choice, you know that."

"Yeah, I know. Fifteen seconds. I'm initiating the startup phase." Olivia punched a few buttons and flipped a switch. The device emitted a loud growling sound, undoubtedly heard by the beings outside.

"We should've installed a muffler," Johnny said loudly and with a big grin.

Olivia couldn't help but grin with him. "You're the one always working on engines, so you can only blame yourself." She shifted her senses to the wormhole, instantly feeling her brother's presence as he did the same.

They needed to time it right. Activating the second phase too soon would turn it off, doing it too late would mean it would only work partly. Neither possibility was welcome, certainly not with the beings outside, who would undoubtedly come to find out what all the noise was about.

Phase two needed to be activated about two seconds before the wormhole would open up. She sensed her brother counting down with her and when they both reached two, she flipped the switch.

Keeping her senses on the wormhole she continued the countdown. One second after the wormhole opened would be the optimum moment to execute phase three, which would resolve the problem it was designed for in two seconds or less. That would not help with the beings outside, who would still be around and most likely not even realize they were missing any information.

As John hit the switch, she wondered how this device would deal with hard copied information, like written down formulas, technology that was already created and stuff like that. She was fairly certain it would only remove the technological knowledge from the minds of the beings, hiding it.

Could it be this would only temporarily stop the beings outside? Or would the fact that they no longer could grasp the formulas involved be enough to stop them?

"Aeryn, Pip! We're leaving right now! Get through the wormhole immediately!"

Olivia looked at John quizzically, wondering why he was in such a hurry.

"Think about this, Olivia," John said to her. "What we just started will purge realms. I want us all on one ship when that happens."

Crap, he was right. The purging of realms would cause gravitational shifts in all other surrounding realms, especially when purging on such a great scale. She followed Chiana to the wormhole shouting over her shoulder, "We got five seconds left, guys!"

***

Jack didn't know what to think. The shaking of Moya had been happening for nearly two hours. While it had unsettled him, he could tell it was much worse for his kids. He could understand why it was unsettling to Olivia, but he didn't understand why his son was so affected by the shaking of the great ship.

John should be used to all of that, especially after spending over three years on Moya. Chiana had stood next to Olivia, giving her comfort, a service Aeryn had been giving John.

So now that the trembling had stopped, he decided he'd get some answers. Chiana was the first person he found that he assumed could explain to him what was going on. He caught up to her as she stepped into the Common Chamber. "Chiana, can I ask you something?"

"Hi Jack." She walked to the Leviathan equivalent of a refrigerator. "Want something?"

"Yeah, I'll have a beer… I mean Fellip Nectar."

He walked over to one of the table and sat down, Chiana following him. She took a seat across from him. "You're probably wondering why Olivia and John were so stressed."

"Yeah, can't help but. They're my kids."

"You know they needed to remove the wormhole tech from the bad guys, right?" He nodded, knowing what his kids had been doing. He was very proud of the both of them. "Well, it also destroyed all realities the bad guys created."

Again Jack nodded.

"Realities in which countless beings were living their lives."

What? "Wait, are you saying…" Jack swallowed. "My kids murdered people? Committed genocide?" He couldn't believe it. His kids would never do that. "They should've thought of another solution!"

"Jack, there was no other choice."

He stood up rapidly, raising his voice. "The hell there is! There's always a choice! We… we could've captured the bad guys…"

Chiana stood up as well. "All of them, all across the universe and all realities and realms they might be? What if we missed a reality? And what if we did capture them? What then, huh?"

Jack sat down slowly. "I don't know. We'd figure out something. You just don't go for the easiest…"

"Easiest?! You think John and Olivia thought this was the easiest? Have you _seen_ them the last couple of arns, as every shake told them of yet another reality abruptly ending?" Chiana walked away but stopped near the door. "Yes, Jack, they are responsible for killing a lot of people. If they hadn't, a lot more lives would have ended. Sometimes killing on a big scale is the only option. It's never the one you want to choose, but if you have to, it's to keep everyone else alive."

Jack watched her walk out of the Common Chamber, wondering what the hell he'd gotten himself in to. The universe was a much crueler and colder place than he had thought.


End file.
